Muscular Dystrophy Association Lock-Up

Thank you to all who took time off from their busy day to help us raise money.

You guys worked those phones like champs!

And a special thanks to those who donated to the 2010 MDA BJ's Lock-Up.


Donations to the MDA provide help and hope in many ways:

Clinics - expert specialized medical care
Research - cutting-edge investigation into treatments and cures
Support - help obtaining equipment and coping with challenges
Camp - a barrier-free week of fun, friendship and laughter for kids


Thanks for making a difference! Together we're providing help and hope to kids and adults served by MDA in our community.


It's not too late to donate. Go to www.mda.org to help.

You Guys and the Controversial Health Care Bill (10%)

The recent passing of the Health Care Bill has caused so much controversy and has brought some wackos out of the wood works.

The Republican Party has been demonized by the actions of some extremist who oppose the passing of the Bill.

Reported incidents of death threats, cutting of gas lines, throwing bricks through windows and yelling of racial slurs against members who supported the health care bill have casted a shadow over the GOP.

As chair of the El Paso Latino National Republican Coalition, as an active member in the El Paso Republican Party and as a radio personality I have taken part in conversations about the threats of violence that normally include the words "you guys". Like me and the fellas went out one weekend and got a little crazy.

First of all, my guys and gals(can't forget the hard working women) have been too busy diligently working on the party on the local level to ensure the smooth transition from our current administration to our new found leadership to be messing with making threats of any kind.

Both the El Paso Latino National Republican Coalition and the El Paso Republican Party have released statements that clearly give their positions against the Health Care Bill and against the use of any violence.

It is always easy to make a blanket statement and blame "you guys." I don't think you can make a generalization of many by the action of a few.

A few you ask? There has been up to ten incidents that are being investigated by the FBI. Yeah, ten incidents. I agree one incident is one too many, but take this into consideration.

There are roughly 55 million registered Republicans in the United States. How can those ten all of a sudden be the majority. Don't label "us" by the actions of "those" few.

"Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone"


Nobody is perfect, we all have our faults and make mistakes. We are all human, well most of us.

All week I have been defending the Party. I have been taking heat from the left and from the.....oh wait just the left really. I have been taking my bumps and bruises over the actions of others that I had no control over.

All week long I have asked, "Diosito, Por que?" "Why God?".

I'm a man who believes in God but I'm not active in a church as I should be. How could I expect Him to help me? How could I expect Him to send me a sign or lead me to the right path?

Then on Thursday March 25th my prayers were answered. He sent me down a dark and gloomy path. A path that most of my kind(republicans) would not take.

I attended a Democrat Candidate forum.

He had sent me there to witness a revelation.

OK, "He" was the station manager who suggested we cover more political events for the station. Either way it was an awakening.


I was shocked to see what took place before my eyes.

The screaming, the fighting, the threats of violence, the insults.

All that was not just limited to the candidates.

Oh no, the lynch mobs were out in full force.

That's when I realized....... there are crazy violent wackos on both sides of the aisle. They are not just on the left or on the right.

But for some reason we always blame each other.

Don't be fooled by my name;

I am no one to judge.(In a really old book Samuel was a prophet or a judge)

I can easily call "you guys" a bunch of screaming and yelling, threat making, no respect having, stereotyping, social justice stomping, chair throwing, fight causing, finger pointing, rumor starting, fact changing, issue dodging, out of control maniacs.

But I won't. That's because I can see that the isolated incident, that had about 150 people and at least 20 acts of violence, does not speak for the the party as whole.

It was more like a temporary case of turrets.

A Follow Up on Rachel Quintana (Not Stalking)

This is a follow up on a piece I had posted about the new cell phone ban that was proposed by our very own Rep. Rachel Quintana.

There is still a lot of criticism and doubt on the effectiveness of this ban.

Many of you have said that there has not been enough studies conducted to prove that the use of cell phones while driving is any more unsafe than doing other things like....

eating, changing the radio station to KHRO 1150 AM or flipping someone the bird while driving. (you like that plug?)


This weekend Rep. Quintana participated in scientific tests to help prove the effectiveness of the ban. The tests were conducted in a controlled environment just outside of the city limits.

Rep. Quintana did lead the charge on introducing the ban so I think it would only be fitting that she also lead the charge on conducting some of the studies her constituents have been asking for.

Rep. Quintana was first asked to maneuver through real life traffic situations using a hands free device.


Reaction time, acceleration, braking distance and other data were recorded.

To the surprise of those conducting the test, the first accident took place very early in the study.

One factor that was not taken into consideration when designing these tests was the complexity of the high tech simulators.

The simulators which are impact resistant and designed for safety seemed to be more than what Rep. Quintana expected.


A special team of engineers was on site to help Rep. Quintana maneuver around some of the more dangerous obstacles.

Parked cars are more dangerous than you guys think.

At the end of a long and frustrating day, Rep. Quintana decided to leave the testing and data gathering to the pros.

Many of you are wondering, did she reach for her cell phone while conducting these scientific tests? Did she send or read text messages while driving the high tech simulator?


As you can see in this exclusive photograph, Rep. Quintana was wearing a hands free device while conducting the test.

And after seeing her performance on the track with the hands free device, she showed no interest in running the track while talking on her cell phone.

The group of engineers agreed that it would be best that she didn't either.

Not much was proven by these tests this weekend. We didn't get any indisputable evidence to prove or disprove the effectiveness of the ban.

We are all still waiting on some reliable data to do that.

So if any of you guys out there have any please feel free to share it with us.

Our weekend wasn't a total loss, we did see a politician following the law she had proposed, that's always nice, and my research team and I enjoyed our afternoon running the track over and over once Rep Quintana completed her test. I love my research team!


(no kids or politicians were harmed in the making of this report)

Looking Forward To Being Arrested

It's the first time in my life that I can honestly say that I am looking forward to being arrested.

Yup, it's not a misprint.

Many of you are wondering how I can say that and are wondering what kind of trouble did I get myself into this time.

While others are jumping for joy and wondering why it took so long.

I will be participating in the 2010 BJ's Far East Lockup held by the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

I will do my part to help Jerry's kids.

I will be behind bars for one hour at BJ's restaurant located at 11905 Gateway Blvd. West off of I-10 and Zaragoza. So come on by and help me raise my bail.

You can also go to this website for more information and to contribute towards my bail.

All donations towards my bail will go directly to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Help me help the kids. Every little helps.

https://www.joinmda.org/MyLockup/MyHomepage/tabid/137815/Participant/sammyctalkradio/Default.aspx

Rachel Quintana can't get no love

It's been a bumpy road for freshmen City Councilwomen Rachel Quintana.

Charges of falsifying documents to get a reduced fair on an airline have haunted her for over two years now.

Her arrest was rumored to be politically motivated. It been said around the water cooler that Joyce Wilson allegedly had her "pet Police Chief" at the time arrest her to publicly humiliate her over documents she was accused of forging to acquire a discount plane ticket that was valued at $75.00.

This brings up an interesting question. Is a pet Police Chief kind of like a Pet Detective? Just wondering?

I don't know the exact details about the story but there seems to be a lot more to it that we are led to believe.

Many people have criticized her and starting in 2007 have even talked about having a re-call election to remove her from here seat in City Council.

Rep. Quintana has filed appeal after appeal, has found a way to keep pushing back her hearings and has avoided any re-call elections. I would take that as a blessing and do my best to stop creating waves.

But for some reason Rep. Quintana decided she would do a little PR work for herself and maybe score some points with the public.

How would she accomplish this almost impossible feat? She proposed a Cell Phone ban ordinance. But she didn't do it the old fashion way.

Rep. Quintana skipped the legislative review committee process and took her proposed ordinance straight for council approval. That's a Tsunami if you ask me.

Her ordinance that was passed and will take effect April 1st has been called a "feel good" ordinance by some on city council and has caused a lot of controversy on talk radio.

The ordinance has holes in it that include not having a specified fine for violations. Some how a judge will determine that on a case by case basis.

I would really hate to walk into a Judge's chambers on a bad day with this offense. The sky would be the limit.


April 1st is just around the corner. People in El Paso will be pulling a Maria Shriver. You will still see them talking on the phone in their fancy SUVs despite the new ordinance and live their cell phone dependant lives like they have been doing. Speaking of that, where did I leave my darn cell phone?

Now if this wasn't enough bad press for Rep. Quintana; an inside source tells me(o.k. so I only got one source but he was indoors when he gave me this heads up)that after all the talk about the use of phones Rep. Quintana has a hard time using the one in her office.

Seems like she has put so much time into this ordinance that she has failed to return calls and e-mails to her constituents. Several constituents have complained time and time again and are reconsidering a re-call election to remove her from office.

One of the complainants claims that Rep. Quintana ignored his calls, e-mails and written letters about an issue he had. He eventually received a letter stating "I am of receipt of your letter" but no response to his concern.

The complainant stated that he received a call to his residence when he had never given Rep. Quintana his home number. All his calls were made from his cell phone. (That eliminates the caller I.D. theory) He then said he never gave her a number to be reached at so she would have to leave a paper trail of some sort.

I'm wondering, did she call his house number from her cell phone while she was driving?

The complainant and a small group of supporters have started a recall petition and state that they only need 20% of the registered voters who voted when she ran to sign the petition to get a recall election.

Rep. Quintana's term is up in 2011 and she has shown interest in re-election. Honestly, if I were her I would just be happy to finish this term without anymore negative publicity. Maybe once she is out of office she won't be singled out anymore and will be able to get that silly misdemeanor dismissed. I think its a blessing in disguise. What do you think?

Enough is Enough

This weekend was another grim reminder that there is a war going on just a hop, skip and a jump away from us. There has been over 4,700 homicides reported since 2008 and the number just keeps rising.

We have gone in to other countries for a whole lot less. What makes this different?

Two Americans and a Mexican citizen were killed as they left El Barquito de Papel(little paper boat), a birthday party hall in Juarez. There is a 7-month old little girl who will never meet her parents and two small children with injuries who wonder why "Papa" is not there to change their bandages.

The White House said the president "shares in the outrage of the Mexican people at the murders of thousands in Ciudad Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico."

How many more must die until we do something? This last occurrence has made the national news here in U.S. because one of the victims was a State Department employee.

How about the other American victims? What about Ivan Christopher Salgado the 4 year old who was killed in the village of San Isidro while traveling with his family, how about the family from Las Cruces killed in a shooting on the Juárez-Porvenir highway in Loma Blanca? How about Marine reservist Gustavo Zubia-Lopez, the 20-year old who was found beaten and shot to death in a Juarez neighborhood just before he was scheduled to deploy to Iraq in the fall? How about.....how about.....how about? There are many more examples.

They weren't State Department Employees and their deaths didn't create national attention.

Would the white House have reacted the same if Lesley Enriquez didn't work for the State Department? Would her just being a loving wife and a mother who was expecting a second child that was killed in Mexico been enough to get the attention from those in Washington? I'm not sure if it would have been, but I am sure glad Washington is finally y looking this way.



The White House has expressed outrage.


Outrage? We have been talking about this issue for over two years now but have done nothing about. It was a year ago this month that Geraldo Rivera's At Large cable television show was here interviewing some of our local leaders.

Rivera asked "Can the bad guys win?" "Not if we get engaged and we respond to the request for help" answered Congressman Sylvestre Reyes who is also the chair for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Now is the time to engage. The people of El Paso are asking for help.

Sheriff Richard Wiles was asked how he would prevent the bad guys and bad stuff from coming over into his city. His response; "I'm not sure we can to a great degree."

In a separate interview with a local television reporter Wiles stated that he didn't feel the community should panic when asked about the case involving Sergio Saucedo, a Horizon man who was kidnapped from his home and whose body was found mutilated later in Juarez. "I would hope the citizens of El Paso could feel comfort in the fact that they're not going to be targeted unless they are part of the drug trade."

I wonder if he still feels the same now that the violence has taken the life of one of his men?

If that doesn't worry you, Mayor John Cook had an interesting comment himself in the interview with Rivera. "If they were coming over here looking for people related to the cartels then I would be a lot more worried about it than I am today."

Are you worried now Mayor?


Enough is enough! Less talk, more action. Don't tell us we live in one of the safest cities, make us feel like we are safe.

There has been much talk about what we can do to solve the problem. There is no easy answer there is no easy fix.

Some people have said that law enforcement should take on the challenge while others would prefer military boots on the ground.

Gov. Rick Perry just ordered the activation of the first phase of the state's spillover violence contingency plan. "It is imperative that the federal government immediately provide additional resources to prevent spillover violence, but with the safety of Texans on the line, we can't afford to wait."

Now that's some action!

The contingency plan includes increased surveillance of border activity by state and local law enforcement, the Texas Border Security Operations Center, and the Joint Operational and Intelligence Centers, DPS helicopter patrol operations along the Rio Grande River, National Guard helicopters to support aviation missions, DPS SWAT Teams, Trooper Strike Teams and Ranger Recon Teams. Gov. Perry has a standing request with the federal government for 1,000 National Guardsmen to support civilian law enforcement efforts, as well as a more recent request for predator drones to be based in and operate over the Texas-Mexico border.


All that won't solve the problem immediately but it sure will cause those cartel hit men to think twice before coming over here. Why single source? Several heads are better than one. As a former military man, I am a fan of Joint Task Forces. Civilians and military working hand in hand to keep us safe, that's the way it should be.

You can call me a gun toting republican all you want, but this will help me sleep a little better at night.

Confusion

Seems like my new blog has cuased some confussion.

Let's see if I can clear that up for you guys.

I have some definitions that should better help you understand what this blog is all about.

I did what any smart person would do; I asked the internet for help.

Check these out.

A La Derecha; derecha [day-ray-chah]
adv. right, rightward, rightwards, to the right

So by definition this blog leans to the right.

This is a "Derechista" blog.

HuH?

Derechista [day-ray-chees’-tah]
noun1. Rightist (in political tendencies); rightwing. (m)

Spanglish \ˈspaŋ-glish, -lish\
Etymology: blend of Spanish and English

So there you go, A La Derecha is a right wing blog for those who speak english and spanish, but is not limited to those in any way.

A La can also be understood as ALA that translates into WING in english. Please don't try to turn it around into any religious statement. IT MEANS WING!

I hope this clears up any questions for my readers and our listeners. Don't forget to leave your comments. I made a rookie mistake and made it almost impossible for anyone to leave a comment. I have taken care of that issue so comment away!

Not Brown Enough

How many times have you found yourself defending the pigment of your skin because of your political affiliation?

Why should you have to justify it to anyone?

Some of you know me as a radio personality on TheLionStarLive on KHRO 1150 AM where I have been accused of not being a "real Mexican" because I am a Republican.


I really don't see what that has to do with my heritage or nationality. Last time I checked I was an American.


But what the heck let's try to bust a myth.


Is it possible to be a Republican without disgracing your heritage?


The Hispanic culture has always been conservative, believing in God, family and country.



As entrepreneurs and hard workers in pursuit of the American dream, many like my parents came to this great country of ours to create a better life not only for themselves but for their children.

Mexico's conservative political party; the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) that generally supports minimal government intervention in the economy dates back to 1939.

Seems like "real Mexicans" have a rich history of conservatism.

Now I don't have a strong Spanish accent; I don't wear a sombrero or dance quebraditas.


I am a first generation American who served five years in the United States Marine Corps.


I love a good slice of pizza, a thick juicy burger but my favorite foods are lengua and barbacoa. My sister is known for having bar-b-ques for us in her back yard but the family gets together almost every Sunday to eat menudo.


I speak Spanish to my parents but my two sons are only about 35% bilingual. I think that should be higher considering my wife was born in Mexico. (I should have a talk with her about that.)


Does any of that make me more or less of anything? Absolutely not.


Many times we are not brown enough for one side yet too brown for the other.

I don't think anyone should judge me by the pigment of my skin.

I am what I am....


A Spanglish Speaking Conservative!

Against All Odds, Dedicated to serve

L. Rene Diaz woke up one morning and decided he wanted to make a difference.

A former bank branch manager Diaz felt that his strong conservative views and relentless focus on change was what District 78 needed. He threw his hat into the Republican primary race up against a very well known Dee Margo and newcomer Jay Kleberg.

Diaz had no name recognition, no big contributions to his campaign and had a very small following outside of his family and friends.

Diaz spoke from his heart at every forum, he was the only candidate that was really sincere about his service to the community.

With his wife by his side Diaz walked relentlessly. He was set on knocking on every door and talking to every person in District 78. Diaz had a good message that came from the heart.

Would District 78 hear him out?

I spoke to him before election day and he sounded confidant like a warrior before battle. He had his war paint and battle gear on. March 2nd came around, the battle was brutal. All that walking, all that talking and all that waving netted Diaz a devastating 275 votes.

That's just 3.51% of the total vote.

That was enough to make anyone give up.

I gave him some time to take it all in and to spend alone with his family because he definitely needed and deserved it. I emailed him six days after the results came in. I didn't know how he would respond, I didn't know if he was ready to speak about his ordeal.

Then my phone rings. I recognize the number on my caller I.D. and prepare myself for a somber conversation.

Boy was I wrong!

I had planned to give Rene the good old "it's all going to be alright" speech. But as soon as I asked him how he was doing he blew me away.

Diaz said he had never been more motivated to serve.

He said he had done better than he expected election day, a lot of you are wondering, did he know he had only got 275 votes?

He did.

To him that meant that he had 275 people that agreed with his message. That's definitely looking at the positive side of things.

Most candidates would take some time off, regrouped and maybe run for a lesser office in the future. It would only make sense. Well, Rene is so dedicated in serving his community that he is going to do just that, minus the taking some time off.

L. Rene Diaz just met the filing deadline yesterday for El Paso Community College Board of Trustees District 1.

That's right, Rene Diaz is running against long time incumbent Dr. John Uxer for the seat of District 1.

The election will take place May 8, 2010.

When I asked Diaz why he would jump into another race less than a week after loosing a statewide race he responded, "Why not?".

Diaz ran for election to make a difference in the community not just to win a popularity contest.

His dedication to serve his community is what fueled him to continue this election cycle. He has the momentum, the energy, the desire to serve and not to mention a supportive wife by his side, well I don't see a reason why Rene Diaz shouldn't run for Board of Trustees.

Most people don't run for election once in there lifetime. Diaz is running in two within a week of each other. His actions are very admirable to say the least. That is just the energy and dedication that we need here in El Paso.

Just imagine, a candidate who sincerely wants to serve his community, what a concept?